Technology
BASF Ludwigshafen receives massive 95-ton evaporator
Key heat pump component powers €310M CO₂-cutting project
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By ICN Bureau | April 12, 2026
A heavyweight: Two cranes lift the nearly 100-ton falling-film evaporator into the air. Photo: BASF
A massive logistics milestone has been completed at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site, where a 95-ton plate falling-film evaporator has finally arrived after a multi-hundred-kilometre journey by water and road.
The oversized component was shipped from Schwedt on the Oder River, moved downriver and delivered to BASF’s main chemical complex, before being hauled across the plant by heavy-duty truck to the construction site at the steam cracker. It is now being installed as a core element of the company’s new industrial heat pump system.
Once operational, the facility will rank among the world’s most powerful industrial heat pumps for emissions-free steam production. At the heart of the system, the evaporator enables the generation of oxygen-free steam—critical for safe and efficient industrial use—before the process steam is distributed through BASF’s site-wide Verbund network to multiple production units.
With the delivery completed, a key phase of the project is now finished. The roughly 16-meter-long unit was engineered by GIG Karasek, which is also leading construction of the heat pump. Most major infrastructure at the site—including the plant hall, switchgear building, and piping to the steam cracker—is already in place.
Powered by renewable electricity, the heat pump is designed to produce up to 500,000 tons of CO₂-free steam annually, delivering around 50 megawatts of thermal output.
The steam will primarily support formic acid production and is expected to cut up to 98% of process emissions—about 100,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year—by recovering waste heat from cooling operations at one of BASF’s steam crackers.
Commissioning is scheduled for mid-2027. The project is backed by up to €310 million in support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy under the Carbon Contracts for Difference program.
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